The Good Fight
by ThanatosConnery
Summary: Robin must contend with his doubts and obsessions after the Titans are transported to a parallel universe. Gratuitous steampunk, nerdiness, cliches, and angst within!
1. A Will Broken

**Yeah so I've decided to revise this and rethink this completely since looking back on the original story… well it was kind of bad. Hope you enjoy the revised edition! It still retains its basic premise and a bit of its plot. This is my first non-crossover fanfiction and I hope you enjoy it.**

**Three Months Ago**

"_Kathy Baits here with JC Broadcasting! We've confirmed the mass breakout of criminals previously held in cryostorage at Blackgate penitentiary. These criminals, previously apprehended by the hands of a massive group of young heroes, should be considered dangerous and well-armed. The Teen Titans' response to the matter has yet to be reported." _

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_A robbery downtown. Warehouse district of Jump City._

_The Titans charged at a Hive Five now augmented by Control Freak and Johny Rancid. A raging battle occurred, but in the end the Titans were overwhelmed by sheer numbers. _

_ "Titans! Retreat!"Robin called._

_ "Stupid snot-munching Titans!" Gizmo sneered. "We own this town now!"_

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"_It has just been confirmed that many of Jump City's former criminals have been working in groups. Five robberies have been reported in the last week or so. The Titans were only able to stop one of these, and no criminals were apprehended." _

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_ Robin slammed his fist down on the Titan's kitchen counter. Starfire frowned sorrowfully at this. The rest of the Titans gathered round him._

_ "How could this happen?" He growled towards nobody in particular. "They've never been this good in the past…"_

_ "They're working together now, man." Cyborg said cooly. "The Brotherhood gave em a taste of how effective that is. _

_ A beat._

"_You alright?" Cyborg added. "You aren't letting this stuff get to your head again, are you?"_

_ "I'm fine." Robin growled._

_ Beast Boy smiled: "Heh. I think we all just need to chill out. How bout a movie? Fight Club?"_

_ "Again?" Raven groaned._

_ Starfire formed a cheery smile. "I would very much enjoy that movie with all my friends!" Her eyes grew wide a second: "The Pitt of Brad is a fine actor." She beamed before glancing towards Robin._

_ He was already walking towards the door._

_ "I'm going out."_

_ The door shut. He was gone._

_ Cyborg shook his head. "He's letting it get to him. It always gets to him."_

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_Giant red X's meant a bo-staff on the top of the Wayne Enterprises building. Chaotic Good and Chaotic Neutral clashed with sparks flying. On Red X's belt was a new object, a vial of Neutrinium he had recently liberated from a safe room within._

_ The two meant a deadlock. "Who are you working for this time?"Robin asked with gritted teeth._

_ "Try and guess. Who's the one person I care most about?" Red X sneered. He hopped back and launched a fury of throwing x's Robin's way. The Boy Wonder gasped and dodged with a series of backflips._

_ "That's not what I meant!" Robin yelled before charging at the thief again. He lashed out with a series of bo-staff hits which Red X struggled to parry."You *huff* didn't steal Zirconium. I *huff* know that."_

_ "Doesn't mean I *huff* didn't want something else."Red X admitted. He stepped back after one final parry. The two began circling each other. "Tell you what, I'll tell you something cool if you promise not to chase me down for a week or so."_

_ "How cool are we talking?" Robin asked.  
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_ "I can't tell you that. However, you can either accept my offer and get some information or turn it down and try to interrogate me, and that's only if you beat me."_

_ "How do you know I won't just take you down after you tell me?"_

_ Red X chuckled at that, "Please, it's YOU for crying out loud."_

_ "Fine" Robin grunted. They stopped circling each other.  
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_ "I'll contact you in forty minutes." Red X said. "I just need to get my pay first."_

_ "Why can't you just tell me now?" Robin asked._

_ "Beggars can't be choosers, Robin. Trust me, I'll tell you what you want to know."_

_ Robin nodded before procuring a spare communicator from his utility belt. He tossed it to Red X who quickly examined it._

_ "I swear, X, if you-"_

_ "Keep your tights on, bird-boy. This is my last gig with the guy before I split town. I've gotten all the pay I need." Red X said. "Besides, I don't even like him."_

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_A star trek sound came from Robin's utility belt. He flipped it open to reveal Red X._

_ "As promised, boy wonder." He announced."Guy I'm working for is called Warp. Heard of him?"_

_ "We've meant." _

_ "__"He said he's working on some new project. I don't really know what it is; I don't ask my clients questions." Red X explained._

_ "Where is he at, X? This could be something dangerous."_

_ "Uh-uh. I told you I'd tell something cool; that's it. He'd know I was the one who snitched him out if you busted him now."_

_ "What if I told you I'll hold off an attack for a month?" Robin offered._

_ "Heh. You're a good kid but you wouldn't be that honest." X exclaimed. "Not when there could be people's lives on the line. I'll be seein ya."_

_ The transmission cut. Robin snarled._

_ "I should have beaten the answers out of him."_

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**Two Months Ago**

_The morning twilight in Jump City._

_ Cars scurried from home to work the same way they would have done any other day in the expansive downtown jungle of skyscrapers. Thedes tower dwarfed these all, a monument to a rich man's ego. _

_ It was a perfect target._

_ Five explosions rocked the tower's 31__st__ floor and shattered glass was sent sailing into the streets below. Traffic slowed to a halt as many took to their feet to see the sight._

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_ "Think of it as a reunion gift, Titans." Slade spoke to the Titans through their viewscreen. "Hopefully it will bring back a lot of warm memories."_

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_"Kathy Baits here. After a long period of silence, the terrorist known as Slade, AKA Deathstroke the Terminator undertook a destructive attack against Jump City. At 5AM this morning a series of high explosives were detonated at the Thedes Tower. The death toll has been counted at six. Police have been coordinating with the Titans throughout the day to track down and apprehend the mad man."_

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"_What's your opinion on this whole ordeal, Frank?"_

"_Obviously the Titans are over their heads. They couldn't bring down the first crime wave and now Slade's back. This city's quickly going to Hell in a handbasket. Either the Titans step up their game or I say we begin a call to bring in more heroes. Maybe some of the Justice League? Hell, I'd even take a national guard battalion."_

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_Robin tossed and turned in bed late at night._

_ His mind crept into the past. He was in the Titans' cold basement years ago._

_ "__I am the thing that keeps you up at night…" Slade spoke menacingly as he gripped the hero's collar. "The evil that haunts every dark corner of your mind. I will never rest...and neither will you."_

_ He snapped upwards in bed._

_ "We can't do this alone."_

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_ "I'm sorry Robin but there's just no way we can make it over to help." Bumblebee said to Robin via the main room's viewscreen. "Brother Blood's been more active lately and he'-"_

_ Klaxons blared in the Titans Easts' common room._

_ "Another robbery downtown. Maybourne Inc." Speedy called._

_ "Damnit." The heroine groaned. "That's the second time this week. I promise we'll come once this mess is taken care of."_

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_ Kid Flash stood in the viewscreen, Jinx stood behind him and waved at Robin._

_ "Sorry, bird-boy but Weather Wizard's been giving us hell lately."Kid Flash said.  
>"If we walk away now there's no telling what he'd do."<em>

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_ The Titans gathered around the main room's viewscreen._

_"I'm afraid Mast-"_

_ "Alfred, call him Batman."_

_ "Oh yes, I forgot you wished to keep that secret from your new friends. I'm afraid Batman is out at the moment. Both Two-Face and Bane seem to have created an alliance of sorts, no doubt for some nefarious purpose."_

_ Robin sighed. "Can you just tell him to call me whenever he's available?" _

_ "Certainly master-"_

_ "Alfred!"_

_ "I was going to say Robin."_

_ Robin chuckled for the first time in months, "Sorry, Alfred."_

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_ "How goes the hunt for help?" Cyborg asked Robin in the common room._

_ "It's been going nowhere." Robin grumbled. "Nobody is available. They all have their own issues to take care of. Some of the villains that escaped from Blackgate weren't ours, after all. I think we're on our own."_

_ "Whelp, guess that's how we started." Cyborg said with a small smile._

_ "I'm not sure that's going to be good enough."_

_ A beat._

_ Something had changed in Robin's voice. Its usual confidence was gone. Cyborg's smile left his face._

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_A knock on his door at 10PM._

_ Robin answered it, Starfire was there; he half expected it. A wide cheerful, playful smile was on her face, one he wasn't in the mood for._

_ "Dearest friend! Why have you been in your room all night? We were just getting ready for a round of joyous capture of the flag in Halo. Will you join us?"_

_ Robin sighed: "I'm… not really in the mood, Star."_

_ "You haven't really been in the mood for anything these last few weeks." Starfire noted. "Is anything bothering you?"_

_ Robin wanted with all his will to voice his thoughts, but he just couldn't bring himself to do it. It'd be selfish… it would jeopardize the team's integrity._

_ "I just need some more alone time." Robin said. He forced a smile: "Maybe tomorrow?"_

_ Starfire frowned slightly before saying "Very well," and walking away._

_ In truth, he didn't want to do anything but think. He was obsessing over a new question in his mind; was their fight even worth it? _

_ What was the point of it? Even if they managed to send all of the villains who were parading free around their city back to prison, they'd just break out again. They'd be pissed, they'd target the Titans for revenge, and innocents would likely suffer in the process; just like those six killed earlier in the week by Slade. _

_The same circle over and over and over… never to be broken by the likes of them. He hadn't felt this for a long time… Not since…_

_ "Annie.." He whispered._

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_The summer quickly grew old and autumn took the year's reigns. The crime wave continued. Through some luck a few of the Titans' rogue gallery and some more minor criminals were brought into justice. However, sensing the Titans' weakness more quickly rose from the underworld to take their places. Help was a far flung chance, as Brother Blood continued a campaign of terror in Steel City, the Justice League were busy battling Darkseid, and Batman and the rest of their allies had their own problems.  
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_ Around the turn of winter they finally had their first break. Red X came through with the whereabouts of Warp's lair. He mentioned an experiment in teleportation. Robin intended to find out what exactly the time traveler was up to._

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"Titans, GO!" Robin shouted before extending his bow-staff with a flick of his wrist and charging towards the temporal criminal. The rest of the Titans let out their own battle cries before following suit. With speed beyond that of any human, Robin sprinted across the concrete floor of a large, abandoned warehouse that was now a make-shift laboratory. The bearded and now very pissed-off criminal, who stood near a series of consoles and large super-computers on the opposite side of the room, let out a growl before pressing a button on his right-armed yellow gauntlet. A small laser-canon quickly extended from it.

"Your presence here is NOT tolerated!" He shouted before firing a series of rapid-fire laser blasts at the charging Titan leader.

Robin had expected this and quickly moved his staff to different angles in an effort to block the deadly beams of light. However, he instinctively knew he wouldn't be able to block for long and thus quickly changed his direction to the side and rolled, hoping to draw his fire. Unfortunately, the experienced villain was not fooled by this. He dodged a Sonic Canon blast from Cyborg with a roll of his own and changed his target to the two airborne Titans, Starfire and Raven. The blast in the meantime sailed into one of the super-computers he was standing nearby, causing it to crackle and spark.

"Damnit! You must stop that at once!"

Raven quickly extended a dark magic shield around herself and Starfire. While it kept them safe from harm, it prevented Raven from using any sort of offensive magic. Starfire could not fire starbolts behind it.. However, they still were able to fly towards Warp. In the meantime, the villain had procured a round, chrome ball of some sorts that was previously attached to his hip by some unknown mechanism. He threw it high, chuckling, at Beast Boy and Cyborg, who had made the mistake of making their charge too close together.

Sparks continued to fly from the super-computer.

"Grenade! Look out!" Cyborg shouted as it came hurtling towards them. He attempted to fire at it with his Sonic canon but unfortunately his aim was slightly off. Beast Boy gasped, transformed into a cheetah and sprinted to the right. Cyborg attempted to leap out of the way, but was caught in the outermost of the abnormally large blast the small grenade was able to create. Luckily, most of the heat was absorbed by his robotic lower half, but it still managed to toss him into the air a few feet. He was twirled 90 degrees before he slammed down on his side.

Warp changed targets with his right-armed wrist-mounted laser again, this time aiming for the downed robotic Titan. However, before him in his sights a bo-staff struck his arm from his right-side, sending his blasts into the dusty floor.

He had forgotten all about Robin.

Almost an instant afterward, The Boy Wonder retracted his staff and then sent it down low in a diagonal swing to knock the time-traveler off his feet.

The time traveler hopped over the blow and stopped firing his arm cannon for a second. He turned to face Robin and side stepped towards the super-computers to dodge a few accurately thrown star bolts from a closing-in shieldless Starfire while pressing a button on his left gauntlet. A laser-gun popped up in this arm while the other retracted from his right. A triangular, foot-wide, flat, glowing red blade eagerly leapt out from a small slit on near the top of his wrist. Starfire charged in from his side with her arms extended, ready to send him crashing into the supercomputer that was now nearly on fire nearby.

The supervillian countered this threat by aiming his now left-arm mounted laser-cannon at Starfire, forcing her to avert her flight upwards to dodge the shots. Meanwhile, Robin leapt into the air to bring his staff down vertically on Warp's head. The super-criminal hissed and moved his right arm's blade to meet the blow. The two metal weapons meant with a terrific CLANG, but to Robin's surprise they did not stay in a deadlock for long; the weapon was heated to a great degree and burned right through his staff. Warp smiled smugly, ready to go on the offensive. He quickly extended his blade forwards to pierce the boy wonder's chest.

Robin, shocked but still in action, dodged the blow by bending over backwards. The hot blade missed his chest by a mere inch. Warp growled at the setback and immediately turned the blade on its side and brought it downwards. Robin gasped, expecting to feel it sink into him at any moment, but was saved when Warp's arm became incased in black energy. He was thrown nearly thirty feet into the air.

Robin sighed and wiped a bit of sweat away from his forehead, expecting the time traveler to impact the ground any moment. However, like usual, Warp was filled with surprises. As he grazed the wooden ceiling he activated a pair of hover boots and quickly descended to the ground, all the way on the other side of the room where the Titans had entered. While doing so, however, he didn't seem to be using his laser-cannon. Robin was quick to pick up on this.

"Titans, overwhelm him!" He ordered. "He can only use so many gadgets at once!"

"Stop this foolishness, Titans!" Warp shouted. "I am conducting a critical experiment and I intend to see it through. Get out of my laboratory!"

"It's not even yours, Dexter!" Beast Boy shouted, who was now closest to the villain. He chuckled slightly at his own bad joke before transforming into a velociraptor and speeding towards the time-traveler.

Nobody except Warp noticed as a message began to blink on a large monitor on the far side of the room that read, "Warning: Power levels have been sustained above expected maximum longer than expected. Automatic shutdown engaged."

"NO!" He shouted. He fired a series of shots at Beast Boy who quickly transformed into a bird to avoid them. "Override protocol 36 and begin process 86-T."

"Acknowledged, Doctor LaSalle." A cold, robotic voice responded.

The rest of the Titans paused in their charge towards the supervillian hearing this.

"What did you just do, Warp?" Robin barked furiously.

Warp chuckled, now a bit calmer. "Allow me to explain. After that brief bit of fun with the Brotherhood of Doom, I found myself frozen by you and your little friends. Afterwards, I found myself in Blackgate. Escaping from there was… no easy matter. It was also no easy matter recovering my suit from your blasted government. It was no use to them anyway, they could not grasp the complexities of the technology with their limited understanding. I was overjoyed to be reunited with it, but unfortunately after our first encounter my time-travelling capabilities have been incapacitated."

"We're very sorry about that." Raven said sarcastically.

Warp sneered: "You should be, do you have any idea how much that supercomputer your friend just wrecked must have cost Star Labs?"

"So that's where you got all this from." Robin growled.

"Them, Wayne Enterprises, Gemini…" Warp counted on his fingers, "The list goes on and on."

"You still haven't answered my question, Warp." Robin said.

"I was getting to that." Warp held out a finger. "Though the technology of this period is primitive, I opted to recreate my time machine. Now, I have a working prototype. In approximately thirty seconds a portal will open up in this room. Unless you wish to be trapped forever in a time that is not yours it would be advisable to leave."

"How about you stick around with us for a while, instead?" Robin growled before charging towards the villain. Warp hissed and fired his laser cannon thrice. Robin deflected two shots but a third missed and sailed at a the same damaged super-computer on the other side of the room. Almost immediately, klaxons began blaring and in an eerily cold tone a robotic voice chimed in with,

"Warning. Control of temporal vortex unattainable. Resonance cascade failure imminent within a four mile vicinity. Emergency shutdown procedures offline."

"Damnit!" Warp cried.

"Nice shooting." Raven groaned.

A staff slammed into Warp's back while he was distracted, sending the super-villain to his knees. "What's going on Warp?" Robin growled. "What does it mean by cascade failure?" The rest of the Titans took up positions around him.

"Dude, I think that happened in this game I played." Beast Boy exclaimed.

Warp began sweating as he pulled himself to his feet, "Navigating through time and space takes a great deal of precision… otherwise…" He shut his mouth.

"Otherwise, WHAT, Warp?" Robin barked, gripping the villain's shoulders and forcing him to meet his masked eyes. "Spit it out, already!"

He gulped before breathlessly saying, "You can wind up anywhere… at any time."

Robin growled, pushing warm back in a moment of pure contempt. He turned towards Cyborg: "Do you think you can shut down whatever is happening?"

"Way ahead of you." Cyborg said, rushing over to the console nearest to the large monitor. On the screen were a series of intricate calculations and a small 3D image of what looked like a wormhole.

Cyborg sweatdropped.

Perhaps not.

"Oh crap… this stuff is way beyond me, Robin. I'm not sure exactly what I'm doing here and I don't think there's going to be a big red off button."

"There is no way to shut it off." Warp said sorrowfully.

Cyborg studied the readings for a moment more before turning to Robin and shouting, "Yeah, he's right about that I think."

"That does it then." Robin said, trying to keep his voice as calm as possible. He turned to his team mates: "We are leaving."

After saying such, a large, glowing white vortex of energy extending nearly ceiling to floor formed in the middle of the room. The Titans stared at it in awe for a second before dust, and then chairs, and then everything not bolted to the ground- including the Titans -began being pulled towards it. Raven and Starfire fought with all their might to fly away from it. Beast Boy transformed into a cheetah in an attempt to run. Cyborg gripped the console he was near him with both hands. Robin fired a grapple hook and managed to catch the side of the entranceway to the room. Warp activated his hoverboots and made his way towards the door. An overpowering gushing sound could be heard as air was sucked into the portal.

"Starfire, give Cyborg a hand!" Robin ordered, thinking that the metal man was the most vulnerable and far from help. Starfire complied, doing her best to fly along the walls and circle the vortex. She grabbed Cyborg and began to fly upwards towards in the hopes of punching through the wooden ceiling. All the while, the winds intensified, eventually blocking out any attempts at communication with the sound of a close-proximity tornado. Robin estimated they were quickly overtaking 120mph.

Starfire struggled against the gravity and winds with Cyborg in tow. However, it was too much. She began losing speed and then, with horror, realized she was being sucked towards the vortex.

"EEEEK!"

"STARFIRE!" Robin screamed bloody murder. He fired a second grappling hook across the room over top the vortex, hoping to create a lifeline that Starfire could grab onto. Unfortunately, the grapple never made far. The strength of the vortex's pull was too much; the hook entered it and disappeared. Starfire and Cyborg were the next to enter it. Nothing seemed to happen to their forms when they seemed to merge with the tornado; they simply disappeared out of existence with a small flash of light.

Beast Boy was the next to lose speed. He began to be pulled towards the twister despite all his efforts. Raven saw this and attempted to hold him steady with black energy but she could simply not concentrate on flying and holding back Beast Boy back at the same time. Beast Boy was swallowed by the tornado.

The last thing Robin saw before his grapple cord broke was Raven and Warp struggling against the current towards the door. He fell face first into the vortex.

A brilliant flash of light.


	2. Falling Further From Grace

**Chap 2! Never thought I'd make it here. Hope everyone is enjoying it thus far :D. I also hope nobody is turned off when everyone is transported to the parallel world. Let's just say it's filled with so much nerdiness it'd make Wikipedia article editors go, "dude, you might wanna get out more." However, I regret NOTHING!**

**Note: I've reposted this chapter to let everyone know I've deleted the next two chapters because they were an affront to god with how bad they were. Stand by for a remake of them. The story will likely not be the same as it was before.  
><strong>

** Two Months Ago**

_ The Titans' gym's punching bag was the biggest woobie on planet Earth. It had endured countless years of abuse from the Titan's leader who seemed intent on punishing the poor thing for a crime it had never committed. However, it still stood the test of time… and Robin's staff hits. Though unfortunately, on the first of October it seemed the punching bag would finally meet the end of its long, horrible, life. For Slade had returned, and Robin was pissed. _

_ The Boy Wonder lashed out on it with a strength brought upon only by adrenaline and hatred. In a matter of five seconds, he had unleashed enough kicks, punches, staff-hits, and even birdarings_ into the solitary target_ to subdue ten bank robbers_

_ "RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGHHHH!.!.!" Robin roared before sending the butt-end of his staff into the tippy-top of the wayward bag. He heard a loud pop; it had been punctured. Robin quickly withdrew his favorite weapon and placed the butt-end of the floor. He leaned on it, breathing heavily and sweating profusely. _

_ "Jesus H. Crizzlin Christ dude!" Beast Boy shouted from the gym's entrance. "I thought you said you'd lay off the coffee before training."_

_ Cyborg poked his head in the doorway: "What's goin- HAHAHA, oh dear lord. Damn, Robin."_

_ "Will you two get out of here!" Robin snapped, turning to meet the two annoyances._

_ The metal man seemed taken aback, "Hey man, we're only playing." He said in a slightly guilty tone. "It's good you're getting it out of you. Better it than some poor criminal who decided to steal a purse on one of your bad nights."_

_ Robin managed a smile: "Sorry, didn't mean to flip on you… it's just… well… you know."_

_ Cyborg smiled as well, walking into the gym "We know, we know. You're not the only one who isn't too thrilled to see the guy again."_

_ "No kidding. If I ever see him again I'm going to pull a Dave Chappelle and be all like, 'What do the five fingers say to the creepy mask?'"_

_ "Slap." Robin said calmly with a slight chuckle._

_ "Damned right dude!"_

_ "Seriously though." Cyborg stepped in. "If you ever want to talk about anything that happened back then… well."_

_ "You'll be the first person I come to." Robin said._

_ Cyborg winked; "Oh, I don't think I'll be the FIRST person."_

_ A beat. _

_ "Oh, shut up!" Robin exclaimed._

_ The two of them burst into laughter as they exited the gym._

_ Robin sighed. He was truly glad the two stopped by, it had taken his mind off things… but only for a second. That seemed to be his only reprieve; his friends; his only beacon to what he guessed was sanity. However, his mind always quickly returned to what he had been pondering when he was alone. Something in him forced it to do so.  
><em>

_ He glanced at the punching back. The hole he made was right where a grown man's neck would have been… He was thinking of Slade when he made it. He had a chance to use those types of moves on somebody only once before… Of course, he knew that the move wouldn't kill him. Slade had gained powers and an unbreakable body from Trigon. He had used several killing blows as a last resort to hold Slade back from chasing Raven while everything else was frozen in time. However… looking back at it, he realized he had felt something else when he did it besides a sense of duty; absolute joy. _

_ 'It would be so easy.' He thought. 'I have the knowledge, the training. It would be quicker… more effective… it would break the circle. It'd save six lives from constant annoyance and torment.'_

_ All those criminals who had bothered the Titans so many times… they would never return to ruin lives or butcher innocents again. It was a silly, impossible thought but would anyone blame or hate him if he embraced it? They'd be disappointed in him, yeah, and he knew he'd quickly be labeled as an anti-hero. Hell, Batman may even try to hunt him down like Red Hood, but the people who mattered most at the current moment; the citizens of the city and his teammates… they'd all feel relief... _Would anyone even bother to take care of the graves of Slade or Brother Blood? Would any flowers be seen by them? He knew the answer was no._ It wouldn't be Gizmo.. or Mammoth.. or Control Freak either, just the real bad guys.. the murderers and tyrants.  
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_ Then he thought of Jinx, the most powerful of the HIVE and a constant annoyance to the Titans. She was able to reform.. though that was with the power of love. However, she had never murdered anyone as far as he knew; she was never beyond redemption. _

_She wasn't Slade.  
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_Then there were all of Batman's villains… as crazy and quirky as the Titans' but ten times as deadly. What Batman could do for Gotham if he had just crossed that boundary for one day._

_ However, something his mentor had said a long time ago still resonated in his head: "Once you cross that line, there is no going back."_

_ He never truly understood the meaning of that or what it would mean for him, and emotionally he wanted to end the threats to Jump City. Logically, it seemed like a good idea as well… but his gut told him Batman was right. However, he wondered just how powerful his gut feelings were? Were they strong enough to overpower his obsessions and and ever-tenacious mind?_

T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T-T

_**FLASH!**_

Robin found himself floating in oblivion. All around him were swirling and transient colors of white, black, and gray. He couldn't see his friends or any discernable objects. However, he still found he could breath. Was he in heaven? It didn't seem like the place. It didn't seem much like anywhere. He called out for his friends, one by one, but no response came. Questions began to circulate in his mind; was this inside of wormholes or portals or whatever the hell he had just entered looked like? How long would he be in here for? He remembered everything. Warp, the fight, and finally the trip into this land of nothingness. He had seen the rest of his friends fall in. Were they already on the other side of this portal?

Minutes turned into hours for him and he felt an unbearable feeling of loneliness and fear creep over him. What if they arrived out of the portal in the middle of Space or a star? If they didn't, what if they could never return to their city? It'd be defenseless. All of their enemies would run amok with them gone. He grunted and attempted to force the thought out of his mind. He couldn't afford to be dwelling when he found himself on the other side of this gateway.

Out of the corner of his left eye, he saw something move in the distance. He turned his head to face it; however all the meant him were the black, gray, white colors in the distance. These colors morphed and curved into each other. It was like he was inside a giant lava lamp of sorts. It was a somewhat beautiful, but somehow, eerie sight. He saw another something move out of the corner of his right eye. Again, he turned. Again, nothing was to be seen. He turned his head back forward but this time; something _was _there.

A giant white eye was directly in front of him. It was a massive thing, nearly fifty times his size. The eye appeared lidless, and was perpetually staring at him with a gray pupil in the middle. Surprisingly, he only found himself to be completely frightened for a brief second. However, it was still incredibly unnerving. He wished he could swim away, but unfortunately knew that was impossible in this environment of zero-gravity.

"_And I thought Scarecrow's gas trips were freaky."_

Two smaller eyes appeared out of nowhere on both sides of the larger one. One with a black pupil and the other a pure white. They bore into him. Now, he was beginning to become frightful.

"What the hell are you?" He called. "What do you want?"

_**FLASH!**_

Suddenly, the white, gray, and black oblivion gave way to what he immediately recognized as the first of Slade's lairs he had been in. Slade stood by five giant monitors showing internal scans of his four friend's blood streams. Bloodstreams infected by nanobots. Had he been transported into the past? No.. That couldn't be. He didn't see himself… He was in his own body. He twirled about; his five friends were at the door to the lair, ready to beat the mad man to a pulp.

Those… things must have done something… perhaps transported his consciousness back into the past. Maybe this was a chance to change it? If that was true he could prevent the crime wave that was afflicting Jump City from ever happening. Or perhaps… it was all just an illusion.

"_Only way to find out."_

He charged at Slade and with a battle cry sent a flying kick into his ribcage. He felt it collide with a satisfying THUD. He flew back, landed on his feet and looked towards his target, expecting Slade to be on the ground. However, instead he stood motionless, unaffected. His one eye glanced at him.

"Nervy one, isn't he?" Slade spoke. However, it didn't _sound _like Slade's style of speech. It was emotional, chaotic… and distorted. "There's something about him I like though… he's tainted."

"Tainted, but not unpure." Another voice spoke behind him. It was Raven's. It sounded mostly like it usually did; calm, unemotional, and controlled. However, it seemed to be unnaturally thunderous. What the Hell was going on? This was definitely not how it happened.

_**FLASH!**_

He was in a chemical storage facility on top of a catwalk that made its way to a large platform where the monstrosity that was Clayface stood. After only a second, he knew exactly where he was. He had visited the place many times within his dreams. He twirled about, and a very familiar teenage girl was there to meet his eyes.

"Annie?" He whispered.

Annie opened her mouth to speak, and like Slade's her voice was emotional, but differed in the fact that it seemed very calm and perhaps… benevolent, "He has had quite the past. Who can blame him?" She frowned, "So much… coldness."

"Perhaps we should take him out of his misery then?" Clayface roared, his voice distorted and chaotic like Slade's. He swung a tentacle of gray matter towards Robin, who instinctively tried to roll out of the way. However, he never really needed to. A batarang flew from the high catwalks to his right, dug into the tentacle, and detonated, sending brown sludge everywhere.

"We have no right to do that." A very calm and calculating Batman spoke. Clayface backed down.

_**FLASH!**_

He was in his old apartment in Gotham city as a young boy. Two-Face stood in front of him as well as his father, on his knees with two guns pointed at his head by a pair of the crime lord's thugs. A coin twirled in the air and landed in the grotesque right palm of the monster. His mother stood in the background, sobbing.

Two-Face turned to his mother;"Hm, wouldn't you agree on that verdict? It would be the right thing to do after all. The poor little bird fell out of his nest too early… imagine the lasting damage it must have caused. Besides, it'd be the best thing for _you _as well_,_ wouldn't it?"

"Don't you try to twist my judgement!" Robin's mother snapped, quickly sobering up. "Fate still has a hand to play, especially with this new development."

Two-Face lept into an insane binge of laughter: "Honestly, you know who's already won here. This doesn't change anything for you, though I think it may be able to help reassure something for me."

He dragged a finger across his throat, looking towards his two henchmen. They flicked the safeties off their pistols. Robin's dad merely looked up at 'Two-Face.'

"NO!" Robin screamed, charging towards the devil and his minions. He whipped out of his staff and sent it cascading into one of the thug's cheeks.

It was like hitting a steel wall. He didn't even budge.

"Can't change the past, boy." Two-Face sneered. "It's forever set in stone. However, the future's always up for grabs. Funny though that the past means so much to it; just like it will now. You are mine, Tim Drake, Robin, or whatever meaningless title you've been assigned. You have always and will always be mine. Your fate was determined since the beginning. It was nothing if not… arbitrary."

'Two-Face' flipped his coin.

He grinned; "This guy understands."

"You are now beyond my patience!" Robin's mother snarled.

The two crooks cocked their guns.

'Two-Face' let out another below of evil, distorted laughter.

His mother's eyes seemed to flicker a pure white.

_**FLASH!**_

Robin was back in the oblivion. The three eyes still bore down on him, surrounded by the gray, white, and black nothingness.

"His time is almost through here." The calm voice echoed from everywhere. "On the other side of this gateway there is one very much like you. His flesh and mind are nearly identical and his past is… similar. Unfortunately for him though, his feet are already two steps into your future…"

The eyes began to fade as well as the colors… they became translucent. A bluish color began to overtake everything and he could begin to make out solid shapes hovering in the distance. He was beginning to hear something again as well; a windy noise.

"Perhaps, through him, you will meet a fork in the road." The calm voice spoke one last time before Robin entered reality once again-

-In free fall.

A howling wind overtook him as he sailed downwards, his cape trailing behind him and flapping madly. Panic overtook him, quickly putting the memories of what he just saw to the sidelines.

"_Oh son of a bitch!"_

He guestimated he was nearly a half a mile in the air. Far below he could see small figures which he guessed were people on top of a landscape of rolling hills and farm fields. About them were large number of other objects of various shapes and sizes. He couldn't get a good look at exactly what they were. He saw flashes too, and over the howling wind he heard explosions. Transfixed by the rapidly approaching ground and his untimely demise, he almost didn't notice the large amount of long, cylindrical objects with two half-spheres at the end of them floating in the sky near and far of him. After a glance he knew what they were; zeppelins.

For a second, he thought he had found his way into the early 19th century. However, that was quickly dashed when he noticed that the bottoms_ and tops _of these huge zeppelins seemed to be supporting structures of sorts. On the top of them appeared what looked like a wooden ship's deck with giant smoke-stacks busy at work. Protruding from the bottom were rectangular looking wooden structures, about half as long as the zeppelins' bodies themselves. On the sides were a series of propellers obviously used for stabilization and propulsion.

After peering at one for a brief second he saw flashes of light come from the top of one followed by a booming sound. They were sporting weaponry! It finally dawned on him; he was in the middle of a warzone. They were like dueling submarines, but instead of underwater they maneuvered in the three dimensions of the sky.

He looked back down towards the rapidly approaching ground. The wind kicked at his mask, but lucky for him it held. The shapes on the ground were now clearly discernible, and it was a sight straight from the past. He saw odd looking metal monstrosities on treads moving about with a double turret on their roof and smokestacks sticking out of their tails. They looked somewhat like tanks he had seen in World War 1 documentaries. He saw old-timey cannons shooting at them, with the tanks returning fire. He could see people supporting these tanks and cannons. However, he still could not make out any details of them. He also saw flashes of light that didn't seem to be from explosions. Blue and neon…

He grew closer to the ground. His heart was racing at a million miles an hour. The only hope he clung to was for Starfire to come swooping in to save his flightless ass, but that seemed very improbable.

"_Common Robin… think. There's always a way out."_

If he had been falling into a city, there may have been something to grapple onto. Unfortunately, there seemed to be nothing at all except…

"_No." _He thought stubbornly, noticing a low-flying zeppelin to his forward position. It was about a hundred yards down and fifty yards forward. Like the other ones he saw, it had a ship deck like structure on the top of it complete with a railing he could easily grapple onto.

"_No… it wouldn't ever work…" _He pulled out his grapple hook launcher, looked at it, and then looked at the Zeppelin. "_This thing does have a length of about 60 yards…."_

He estimated the distance between the Zeppelin and the ground, "_Maybe 100 yards counting the length of the blimp's side…" _

His chord was too short. He wouldn't be able to survive a forty foot fall… and he didn't want to risk climbing aboard someone's airship he didn't know anything about that was likely to be popped sitting so close to the ground. However, the latter seemed to be his only option.

"_Screw it."_

He squinted one of his eyes shut and carefully aimed the grapple-hook launcher.

He fired.

It sailed nearly 48 yards in a perfect trajectory.

After a few seconds, Robin felt the rope become taught. He had made his mark.

"YES!" He screamed aloud. It was a truly remarkable shot. Batman was always good with the grappling hook, but Robin had now proven to be his equal. He found himself now to be swinging downwards in an arc. He decided to let himself complete the swing in order to survey the battlefield, confident the crew on the airship would likely be too busy with conducting affairs to notice Robin's lifeline.

After a few seconds of sailing and… great relief, he took a brief look at the battle below, now able to see everything in keen detail. A formation of soldiers in brown, leather armor was moving up a hill directly beneath him carrying rifles. A small number of men with golden armor supported them. They carried rifles as well, but squinting the Boy Wonder noticed an additional weapon on them; long swords were sheathed at their sides. None of them seemed to notice his soaring self.

Robin swung over the top of the hill and saw another group of people; prone and crouching soldiers in gray-blue uniforms armed with rifles. They were desperately trying to take down the approaching golden and leather-armored soldiers. Their rifles emitted a plume of smoke as they fired. Everywhere Robin saw similar engagements. The battle didn't seem to have any organization whatsoever from his point of view; it was a field of chaos.

_"This is really… really strange." _Robin mused.__ "_And if they have guns... how is this zeppelin I'm clinging to still afloat?"_

Above, five turrets sporting from a structure on the underside of his zeppelin fired, sending explosive rounds of death below to the unwavering group of gray soldiers. Robin cringed at the sound. The soldiers scattered, taking cover in make-shift foxholes as the explosions sprang from the ground. Before dirt even stopped falling from the blasts they were back out of them, firing again at the advancing column of leather-clads. A few fired at the airship but that didn't seem to have any effect; Robin guessed it was more out of frustration than anything.

In the meantime, a squadron of five brass looking cannons beyond the hill seemed to have decided they had had enough with that zeppelin's treachery and turned their guns upwards. Robin's eyemask widened.

"_Oh god damnit, I knew that this was going to happen."_

The cannons fired, sending five large rounds into the forward belly of the sky beast. Five holes formed in it that began leaking a strange teal gas. Robin's heart began pulsing faster and faster.

"_Crap crap crap crap crap!"_

The zeppelin began to tilt and lose altitude. Slowly it descended towards the chaos below, and so did Robin. He was now done with the first part of the swing and was sailing upwards. His panic subsided to a feeling new-found opportunity. The battle below wasn't something he was keen on jumping into, but it was better off than grappling aboard a sinking ship. However, things were not all peachy for him; if the zeppelin fell too far by the time he was half-way done the next swing, his arc would end up below the ground below. He could end up coming down at a bad angle and slam into it too hard. His mind began racing for a solution to this dilemma.

"_Wait... I can change my height..." _he thought, glancing at his grapple-launcher.

He had found it.

The turrets of the zeppelin turned and aimed at the cannons that had brought about such calamity to it and the five of them fired their explosive rounds simultaneously. The cannons and their crews on the ground were ripped asunder. Robin cringed as he saw this. He had seen murders before, some more gruesome than others, but this was different. There were probably more people dying down there in a minute than in a month in Jump City. The thought of it made his stomach churn more than the swing. However, he knew he had to stay focused or he would join the dead in this strange land.

"_RIP:_ _Guy who fell from the sky onto our tank. Warlock? Likely." _He imagined his tombstone may read.

As he completed started to come down from his swing, he took a look back at the zeppelin. He saw a dangling from front end of the zeppelin supported by a rope near where the holes were. The Boy Wonder couldn't make out exactly how he was doing it, but somehow he was repairing the damage done by the five cannons. Somehow, whatever gas was keeping the blimp afloat was replenished as well. After a second or so, the zeppelin began to stop falling.

_"These guys are all crazy bastards!"_

Unfortunately, the ground still seemed too low for comfort. forty-five yards lower in fact. His arc would now definitely take him splat into the ground too early and too quickly. He thumbed the button needed to retract the line.

"_This will have to be perfect."_

Just as he was about half-down the swing he hit the retract line button and felt himself being tugged upwards. After a moment, he now wasn't falling towards the ground at not nearly as wide of an arc. However, he had done it too early; he guestimated he'd now be at around 10 feet in the air when his rope was vertical. He'd need to jump. About ten seconds later, it was time to do so.

He let go of the grapple

_ "Duck and roll…"_

And sailed hard into the grassy turf below. A tremendous pain shot from his foot, and he was nearly sure he had broken it. Nevertheless, he managed to ignore it and followed his mind's command. He ducked and rolled… and rolled before finally coming to stop on his back.

He took a deep breath and opened his masked, hidden eyes to blue skies and dueling zeppelins above.

He had made it.

Amidst all the discord, Robin lay on the slope of a large hill.

He looked up towards where he had made his long journey from, taking another deep breath and chuckling a bit. His heart was pounding like a drum, but still he wanted to forget everything that was going on and enter a long slumber… but thoughts quickly sprang forth that relieved him of this somber idea…. His team… they were probably here as well… somewhere. He would find them and determine just what the hell this place was.

_"Commmon, get up hero!"_


End file.
